Oral Health Week 2016: Dental Wars – The Floss Awakens

Written by Aashwany Chandra Mohan
Photographs by Andrew Octavian and Azfar Afham

Oral Health Week (OHW) is an annual event involving the dental students and its faculty members. It is an ongoing annual event since 2009, aimed to promote oral health awareness among IMU students, faculty members and the public.

OHW 2016 is themed “Dental wars – The Floss Awakens. According to the American Dental Association, many are misled by myths about flossing such as “flossing creates gap between your teeth”, “flossing is painful” and etc. This, in turn have caused people to forgo the importance of flossing. Hence, OHW 2016 is focused on rebutting the myths and highlight the importance of flossing.

OHW 2016 committee led by Eugene Tan Pheng Chin from DT115 have definitely organised many programs for the two-day event. There were oral health educational booths at the driveway and the atrium to edify everyone about aesthetics, flossing and even teeth whitening. Besides that, they also had students from various courses to do on-stage performances and even the flash-mob.

Other than the performances, they have also invited the principal deputy director of oral health division from Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia, Dr. Yaw Siew Lian to give a speech. Prof Khoo Suan Phaik, also gave a speech on behalf of the president of Malaysian Dental Association (MDA). The associate dean of school of dentistry, Prof Dr Seow Liang Lin, also praised the OHW 2016 team on their effort in conducting this event.

Eugene, the president of OHW 2016, also added that it took him and the committee almost 4 months to prepare for this event. It was definitely a challenging moment for all of them as they had to manage time for their assignments, revisions and organizing this event. Anderson Wong, president of OHW 2015, definitely guided the team throughout the preparation process.

“I would like to thank my committee sincerely for their effort in making this event a big success. OHW 2016, absolutely met the expectations, however, a bigger crowd for the event would have been ideal,” Eugene said.

The president of OHW 2016 also had a word of advice for the committee of OHW 2017. He added that they should be responsible, disciplined and be able to manage their time.